


Saltwater Snowflakes

by dyingpoet



Series: Sprace one shots [16]
Category: Newsies - All Media Types
Genre: Drunkenness, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-31
Updated: 2018-07-31
Packaged: 2019-06-19 05:07:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15502965
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dyingpoet/pseuds/dyingpoet
Summary: In which Race is drunk in below freezing temperatures





	Saltwater Snowflakes

“I’m gonna have to cut you off, buddy,” the bartender said. His fingers were drumming against the bar impatiently and Race got the vibe that he could give a fuck about what he did as long as it didn’t go down in the bar. To be fair he was in Brooklyn and underage, so he hadn’t expected much better.

“Fine, ‘ere.” The words slurred in his mouth and tasted like the vodka he’d been downing for the last hour or so, shitty. But he slammed down a twenty and accepted the guy’s curt nod as a dismissal. It was $2.00 shots. 

The room spun for a few seconds when he stood up, and it took him a second of gripping the barstool before he could start for the door without falling. He didn’t know what time it was exactly, but it was darker outside than it was when he came in. The bell rang lightly as he pushed his way through the door, a snort and what sounded like a curse echoing after him onto the street. 

Race looked around for a couple seconds before staggering to his right. Not like it mattered which direction he went in anyway, he didn’t have any place to go to or anybody to see. Tomorrow was his day off work too, Jack wouldn’t worry too bad if he didn’t respond to his texts, and lord knew no one else would notice if he fell into the river. That had been made clear. 

Vaguely, he became aware that it was starting to flurry, flakes landing on his hands and taking a few seconds to register as any sort of cold. It didn’t matter, his coat was in the bar and he didn’t care. The back pocket of his jeans was buzzing too, even that took a couple seconds before it clicked. 

His phone. Must’ve sat on it funny and turned it back on.

“Nina’s,” he said slowly to no one in particular. The sign was glowing bright above him and onto a bench lying under the awning of the place. Cold fingers fumbled with the smooth case of his phone and pressed idly on the home button as he sat down. Too bright. 

A dog howled. It sounded like it was coming from across the street. He still didn’t know what street though. 

“Nina’s.” Repeating it made him feel better and the word fit well enough in his mouth. But the phone screen. The light was crackling at the back of his eyes and some indiscriminate amount of time passed before he could read anything on the screen. 

First was the time. 1:30am.

Then the date. December twenty first.

A puff of frozen air spread out in front of him like a cloud and he heard his teeth chattering before he felt anything. Cold.

Notifications. Seventeen texts from Spot Conlon. Five missed calls. Three missed facetime calls. Two voicemails. Too many. Race was fine, he got the picture, he didn’t need Spot to explain it to him anymore. He just wanted to sleep. 

Head heavy and foggy with too much liquor, he felt himself nodding off on the bench. In front of Nina’s. Nina’s, Nina’s, Nina’s. That was important. He knew where he was. 

A buzzing in his hand and he was tilting his head now because that wasn’t Spot.

_ Jack Kelly: Incoming Call _

“Jackie?” Tilting his head he slid to answer it and held the phone up to his ear, feeling it numb to the touch. “Jackie?”

_ “Race? Hello?” _

“Yeah, ‘s me.”

_ “Jesus Christ, where are you? Spot called me and said he didn’t know where you were, that you weren’t answering his calls.” _

Race frowned. “Spot doesn’t wanna see me anymore, did he tell you that?”

_ “He said you guys got into a fight. Where are you buddy? I can hear the wind and ‘s cold outside.” _

Jack’s tone was light and coaxing. He could feel him pacing through the phone lines. It was actually funny, imagining him all worked up ‘cause Race was out late. Like he was his mother or something. He started giggling.

_ “C’mon Racer, I’m not jokin’. Where are you? I can come get you and you can sleep at my place.” _

Giggles dying out, Race looked out onto the street, the snow was coming down faster and Jack’s apartment was warm.The bed and the blankets were soft and Race wanted to be warm now, the snow bit at him and it was getting harder to hold onto the phone and hear Jack.

“‘Kay,” he said, “‘M at Nina’s, on a bench.”

_ “Okay, I’ll be there in five minutes. Stay there okay?”  _

Race nodded. “‘Kay Jackie.”

_ “See you soon.” _

“See you.”

The line cut off and Race cradled his phone in his lap. Five minutes. He frowned. It was longer than five minutes to Manhattan, he’d taken the subway earlier. Maybe Jack had a faster way, he always could do stuff like that, and if he said five minutes it would be five minutes.

Trying to keep his eyes focused on the clock on his phone kept him busy. The sounds on the street sounded far and close at the same time and the snowflakes reflected the lights from the sign above Nina’s like glass. 

A car pulled up just as the third minute end and Race broke into a goofy grin before tearing his eyes away from the screen. Jack Kelly never lied. 

But the grin disappeared half a second later because Jack wasn’t getting out of the car. That was Spot. 

“No.” The word left his mouth clearly but not strong enough, Spot cleared the distance between them anyway. “Where’s Jack?”

Spot looked down at Race and his eyes were sparkling, and blue. “He’s picking you up from my place in the morning, you can come with me.”

His voice was soft, softer than earlier but Race shook his head. Spot made it clear than he wanted him out, and a stubborn bit of him didn’t want to walk back in. 

“Please Race, it‘s really cold out, you’re gonna freeze.”

Frowning, Race cocked his head and stared at Spot, trying to decipher his tone. The words sounded clumsy in his head and Spot’s hands were shaking but so were his, it was cold out. Really cold. Spot sniffled and he caved. 

“Okay.” He tried to stand and the cold and the vodka mixed together and took the muscles out of his legs. Spot’s hand on his shoulder, and then slung across his shoulder, led him to the car quickly. “Thanks.”

He felt more than saw Spot’s nod and collapsed into the passenger seat, grabbing at the seatbelt as the door slammed shut. Blood was starting to rush back into his fingers already. 

Spot got in and started the car, heat blasting and windshield wipers starting up full force. It looked cold outside, Nina’s sign was still shining down on the bench when they pulled forward and it moved out of view. 

Spot was talking but Race couldn’t hear anything, half asleep while the other half started giving in too, with the rhythm of the car and the wordless rumble of Spot’s voice like a lullabye.

* * *

 

He registered being carried. An arm under his knees and another just beneath his shoulder blades. Even without opening his eyes he knew they were walking into Spot’s building. The clinging of keys and creak of the door sounded the same as they had however long ago.

Spot’s grip tightened when Race’s legs kicked out lazily. “Settle down.”

“I wanna walk.”

He was ignored, and when he opened his eyes Spot’s features came into focus and they were drawn, scared even. That and the slight rocking that came with being carried up stairs pushed his protests back into his chest. Instead he focused on the warmth. It was everywhere.

The door to the apartment stared blankly back at Race when Spot shifted him to get his keys out. 2B. He told him to get out.

The lights were on when they walked in and Spot put Race down gently on the couch before going to shut the door, locking the deadbolt and putting the chain on. He didn’t seem like he wanted Race to get out.

Race watched him sit on the coffee table, a foot or so away, and watched his fingers shaking. Warmth, everywhere. 

“I’m so sorry.” Spot’s voice cracked around the words and they sounded strange coming out of his mouth. Race had heard them before but not as small as they sounded, felt, right now. “I was a dick, ‘m not gonna make excuses. You didn’t do anything wrong and I blew up.”

His eyes searched Race’s face and focusing was coming easier now, there was no mistaking the look in them this time. Last time he’d yelled at Race that he didn’t care about him and they’d been chips of ice.

Hurt blossomed in his chest and for some reason tears started pricking in his own eyes. “I care ‘bout you Spotty, a lot.”

He did and he wasn’t even mad he was just confused and taken off guard and liquor sounded better than trying to figure out why Spot didn’t think he cared because he did, Race did and Spot looked like he was crying and he cared, he cared. 

“You know that, right?” he asked again because he wanted to see Spot’s eyes again, they were buried in his knuckles. “I do, I care-I love you so much Spot and I forgot to say it and I’m sorry ‘cause I forget a lot and you gotta know-”

Clumsily he’d thrown himself next to Race and buried his face in the crook of Race’s neck and he knew he was crying now and they felt like the opposite of snowflakes. 

“S’okay,” Race said softly, arms wrapping around Spot’s shoulder and thumbs rubbing circles into the muscle without thinking, without creaking and fighting with cold. Their legs intertwined too and anything that had confused him earlier was melting because Spot was here with Race and neither of them was going anywhere.

He didn’t know how long they stayed tangled up like that. Long after Spot had calmed down enough to sputter an, “I love you,” into Race’s skin, and long enough to feel their breathing synchronize and their bodies transfer heat without complaint. 

The apartment was warm and so was Race and he planted a kiss in Spot’s hair so it would be the last thing he remembered before falling asleep.

It was. 

**Author's Note:**

> I tried my best and I'm not sure what this turned into but that's okay
> 
> Also kudos are lit and comments just make my day <3


End file.
